Ever been ripped off by a garage?

Jonny69

Jonny69

Jonny69

Man of Honour
Man of Honour
Joined
3 May 2004
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Kapitalist Republik of Surrey
I got ripped off by a gearbox place in Bristol about 10 years ago. My gearbox failed when I was down there and as I had no relay cover, the car had to go in somewhere down there. Since it was going to cost a lot anyway I asked them to fully recondition the gearbox while they had it out, not just fix it, so I had future peace of mind with the box. A couple of weeks later it failed again and on closer inspection they'd taken a second hand box, painted it the same colour as mine and palmed it off onto me.

I've never entrusted work with anyone since and I treat all garages with utmost distrust :D

Was just wondering how many of you have had bad experiences since there are a LOT of cowboys out there.
 
last year after my car failed its MOT, my local (and friendly) SEAT dealer was on holiday, so i had to find another who would do the work so i could repair the car within a week.

i found another main dealer who could fix it the next day. it needed 2 new shocks, but i was told that they always change the track control arms too, so i said, uh.. ok?
i still don't know if they were telling the truth, but i doubt it. dodgy ****s.

oh, and paid £400 in february to replace the outer cv joint. norwegian parts and labour ***
 
With my Focus I was fobbed off by a Ford Dealership about noise coming from the back end of my car that sounded exhaust like when it was still in warranty, I knew better and should have chased it but for some reason or other I was only going past so did not have a lot of time to stand around fighting with stubborn Ford mechanics.

Funny how it was actually a problem next time it was in and warranty had expired :rolleyes:
 
Not quite being ripped off but recently, 3 different garages couldnt work out why my car was being so sluggish - all wanted to do expensive diagnostics or send it to diesel specialists. They all missed the blocked and mangled air filter
 
When I bought my first Rover, I told him (the mechanic) that it didnt always start and made a screeching sound, it was already in there for a clutch cable change and a CV boot.

He took it on himself to replace the HT leads. Which promptly did bugger all as when I vowed never to use a garage for an easy job again and learnt myself found out the problem.

Worn ring gear causing the starter bendix to not properly engage all the time, the screeching being it hitting the worn teeth.

I didnt complain as the old leads were fairly worn anyway, and didnt want to feel a noob as I knew nothing at the time.
 
That reminds me of a friend of mine who got his Astra GTE gearbox reconditioned and when he got it back 4th and 5th gear were both the same ratio. So in essence he had a spare 4th. ;) He was not amused.
 
Wicksta said:
That reminds me of a friend of mine who got his Astra GTE gearbox reconditioned and when he got it back 4th and 5th gear were both the same ratio. So in essence he had a spare 4th. ;) He was not amused.
Click to expand...

Hate to laugh but that is quite funny - how does that even happen!?
 
Yes,

£90 to do wheel bearing. (I asked for it) Supplied the part etc etc. Anyway. Got back in the car. Its sat there on the passenger seat, the new wheel bearing I paid £90 to have fitted.

Anyway, went in and just went into a rage. And I was told the problem was the suspension top mount nut was loose.

Well it wasn't, but regardless I paid for (as the receipt stated) "Labour - Fitted N/S Wheel Bearing"

Mr Clutch wont be getting any business of me again needless to say!

Hence I do as much as I can myself or use trusted friends.

But if your clever you can use garages to your advantage.

I supplied the part but got Vauxhall to fit a new drop link today on the 306. Not bad! for the grand sm of £0
 
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Last year I paid for a safety inspection on a car I was about to buy, everything came back as fine so i bought the car, 3 weeks later I had a puncture in drivers side front wheel, took it to kwik fit as they the only place open on a sunday. Found out I had 2 illegal front tyres, they were bolder than a babies backside on the inside edge.

So much for safety inspections hey!
 
Every garage visit is a rip-off, they are greedy monkeys overcharging for the smallest bit of work, don't trust any of them...


Try do do as much as possible yourself before trying a garage imo.
 
I honestly worry about where id take my car if i ever need serious work done!

Years ago my old car (53, 1.2 corsa) got recalled due to the timing chain, and obviously had to go to vauxhall for a fair bit of work to be done.

When i got it back it didnt feel right, stopped half way home and had to re-attach my air feed! Phoned complained and they had the car proper looked at at another vx garage... fair play they done all sorts to it they didnt need to :P

But after this i have always worried, as you hear bad yet so simple storys all the time!

If the 145 breaks... who cares! Ill have a go at it :D
 
I got ripped off by a garage about erm, 6 months ago. They charged me for new fuel lines and brake lines, and something else that skips my memory. Found out not long after that they hadn't been replaced. I fire-bombed the garage.
 
Not yet but thats probably because I practically refuse to use them, would go to a well renouned speciailist but thats only if I had too. Would rather do it myself.
 
Thankfully, a college at work knows someone who runs a garage really well so i've been able to get work done by them now at discounted prices. GF got ripped off the other day though, 109 quid to get a suspension bush replaced.

Was only 7 quid for the part, rest was all labour.
 
EVERY garage rips you off. For example a standard service for my 106Gti would cost £150 at any number of local places, some would even charge more. I can buy better quality parts at RETAIL price however (including oil), for less than £40 and do it myself in half an hour.....

My horror story dates back to when I had just started driving and knew nothing about cars. When the gearbox went on my Polo I had it refurbished and refitted by the uncle of my best mate at the time. £700 and two weeks later I had my car back (I was told this was HALF price). All well and good I thought, car worked fine... great! Next day on the way home from school the O/S drive shaft came off, it smacked the gearbox on the way round punching a nice big hole in it and trashing the inside. Phoned the uncle and he blamed me for the incident! Apparently you don't need to take the drive shaft off to change a gearbox (There are 8 bolts securing the flange to the box...) but because he was "nice" he would recover my car for free and fix it for me. Knowing nothing I agreed and it cost me a further £200 to have the gearbox repaired by him.

He went bankrupt a few months later and shortly after that the repaired gearbox jammed in 4th (it had never been right) and I got it replaced a at new garage for £400. £1300 later I had learnt my lesson.

Ever since then I've made the effort to learn about the cars that I own and service/fix them all myself. Never looked back.
 
First car - I'd just had the brakes/wheels refitted (almost new swapped off a relatives car of same make which was written off but wheels were ok) when my mum drove it into the curb knocking the alignment out... took it to a local garage... when I came to pick it up later chap says "sorry mate the front brakes are illegal can't let you drive it out til we've changed them for new ones" - shows me the discs one of which has a massive chip knocked out it and the other looks like its worn down suspiciously suddenly... raised hell but in the end still cost me £280 at "half price".
 
Don't think I was ever been outright ripped off to the extent you have but I've had enough bad experiences to not trust garages.

Had a new radiator fitted to the Cinq, couple of weeks later the fan switch failed, fan didn't come on and head gasket went. With the switch being screwed into the radiator conventional wisdom would suggest that the failure was related to the recently done work but the garage were having none of it. Another time I picked the car up after having some work done and on the way home the throttle stuck open as a grommet on the cable hadn't been replaced properly and it jammed. Also been quoted £700 for MOT repairs, took the car elsewhere and most of the stuff it 'failed' on was fine.

I now do all mechanical work myself and have a local friendly bodyshop guy who does any welding and other odd jobs I can't do (had him fit tyres for me last week :p)
 
No, not really,
I have been the victim of a dodgy paintjob, however it was VERY cheap so the I got what I paid for IMO.

I go off reccomendation for garages that do extensive work, I had my transmission rebuilt, I used him off a recommendation (Just reading the 2 horror stores above, thank god this transmission guy knows what he was doing :o (18 months on the trans)).

Funnily enough though the specialist that I take my BMW to, I just walked in off the street, he's cheap + reliable + trustworthy.
 
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Alex_6n2 said:
EVERY garage rips you off. For example a standard service for my 106Gti would cost £150 at any number of local places, some would even charge more. I can buy better quality parts at RETAIL price however (including oil), for less than £40 and do it myself in half an hour.....
Click to expand...

I couldn't disagree more.

The garage has overheads -
Rent
Rates
Telephone bills
Electricity
Insurances
etc etc.

You are also paying for the fact that the mechanic (In my case anyway) sees BMWs day in day out and has been doing so for several years, you simply cannot buy experience.
 
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